"I'm a Singaporean based in Beijing for the past eight years, reporting on a whole range of issues including health care. The stories of desperation are plenty: A 19-year-old woman trying to sell her virginity on a subway in eastern China to help her brother with leukemia. People hawking smiles, hugs and flowers to raise money for hospital bills. A father proposing the sale of one of his daughters to pay for her twin brother’s cancer treatment.
"much of the reaction [to Wee's report of yesterday, see (2)] was along the lines of an email I received from Sydney Casale, a 21-year-old student at Ramapo College of New Jersey. She wanted to know how she could help. 'My heart is heavy for the parents and the fact they have spent their savings trying to find their only child,' Ms. Casale wrote.
Sui-Lee and Elsie Chen, A Diagnosis, Then A Painful Choice; A Chiese [harmacist vanished to spare his parents the cost of his cancer treatment. New York Times, Aug 21, 2018, at page B1.
Excerpt in the window of print: Million of people in China can't afford to treat serious illnesses.